Provided are an apparatus for and a method of removing foreign materials from a substrate which reliably remove the foreign materials, eliminate a chance of redeposition of the foreign materials, and are applicable even to large-size substrates. The apparatus for removing foreign materials includes electrostatic chucks (2, 3) forming a substrate chucking surface (4) to which the substrate (1) is attracted; a resin sheet supplying means (9) for supplying a resin sheet (5) to the substrate chucking surface (4); resin sheet collecting means (13) for collecting the supplied resin sheet (5); and a substrate transfer means for transferring the substrate (1). The substrate (1) supplied to the electrostatic chucks (2, 3) by the substrate transfer means is attracted to the substrate chucking surface (4) through the resin sheet (5), and a foreign material (22) deposited on a side of the substrate chucking surface (4) of the substrate (1) is transferred onto the resin sheet (5) and removed.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. An, apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate, comprising: a resin sheet, the resin sheet having a Knoop hardness of 20 Hk to 200 Hk and not having an adhesive surface; an electrostatic chuck forming a substrate chucking surface to which the substrate is attracted; means for supplying the resin sheet to the substrate chucking surface; means for collecting the resin sheet; and means for transferring the substrate, wherein: the substrate supplied to the electrostatic chuck by the means for transferring the substrate is attracted to the substrate chucking surface through the resin sheet supplied by the means for supplying a resin sheet; the substrate contacts the resin sheet face-to-face and between a flat plane of the substrate and a flat plane of the resin sheet; foreign material deposited on a side of the substrate facing the substrate chucking surface is transferred to the resin sheet and removed; and the resin sheet to which the foreign material is transferred is collected by the means for collecting the resin sheet.
2. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 1 , wherein: the electrostatic chuck is divided into at least a central electrostatic chuck for attracting a central portion of the substrate and a peripheral electrostatic chuck for attracting a peripheral portion of the substrate; the apparatus for removing the foreign material further comprises height direction adjustment means capable of protruding the central electrostatic chuck with respect to the peripheral electrostatic chuck in a perpendicular direction to the substrate chucking surface to form a gap between an end portion of the substrate and the resin sheet; and the means for transferring the substrate comprises a robot arm having a substrate holding portion capable of holding the substrate with use of the gap formed between the substrate and the resin sheet.
3. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 2 , wherein the height direction adjustment means includes: a peripheral chuck lifting mechanism capable of moving the peripheral electrostatic chuck downward in the perpendicular direction from the substrate chucking surface; and a resin sheet height adjustment mechanism capable of adjusting a height position of at least a part of the resin sheet which corresponds to the peripheral electrostatic chuck to a level lower than the substrate chucking surface.
4. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 2 , further comprising substrate lift-up means which is inserted into the gap between the substrate and the resin sheet formed by the height direction adjustment means, and is capable of lifting up the substrate.
5. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 2 , wherein: the means for supplying a resin sheet includes: a delivery roll around which the resin sheet is wound in a roll shape; and a supply side guide roller for guiding the resin sheet delivered from the delivery roll to the side of the substrate chucking surface; and the means for collecting the resin sheet includes: a wind-up roll for winding up the resin sheet; and a collection side guide roller for guiding the resin sheet fed from the substrate chucking surface to a side of the wind-up roll.
6. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 2 , wherein the resin sheet contains at least one material selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl alcohol, low-density polyethylene, polyethylene, polyvinylidene chloride, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, acetyl cellulose, polycarbonate, nylon, polyimide, aramid, and polycarbodiimide, and has a thickness of 5 μm to 100 μm.
7. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 2 , wherein the substrate chucking surface comprises an electrode for the electrostatic chuck.
8. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 2 , wherein: the substrate chucking surface comprises an electrode for the electrostatic chuck; and the electrode comprises an elastic electrode having Shore hardness of 20 Hz to 90 Hs and volume resistivity of 100 Ω·cm to 1×10 −5 Ω·cm, and has a thickness of 0.05 mm to 3 mm.
9. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 1 , further comprising: at least two electrostatic chucks including a first electrostatic chuck forming a first substrate chucking surface and a second electrostatic chuck forming a second substrate chucking surface; and substrate rotating means capable of adjusting an orientation of the substrate in a direction parallel to the substrate chucking surfaces, wherein the orientation of the substrate from which the foreign material is removed by the first electrostatic chuck is adjusted by the substrate rotating means and the substrate is supplied to the second electrostatic chuck to further remove a foreign material.
10. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein the substrate rotating means adjusts the orientation of the substrate such that a non-chucking area of the substrate which does not overlap with an electrode of the first electrostatic chuck when the electrode is projected to a substrate side attracted to the first substrate chucking surface is included in an electrode projection area obtained by projecting an electrode of the second electrostatic chuck to the substrate side; and the second electrostatic chuck removes the foreign material.
11. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein: each of the first electrostatic chuck and the second electrostatic chuck comprises a bipolar electrostatic chuck having two electrodes to which voltages whose potentials are different from each other are respectively applied; and the substrate rotating means adjusts the orientation of the substrate such that a non-chucking area of the substrate which corresponds to an interval between the two electrodes of the first electrostatic chuck is included in an electrode projection area obtained by projecting the two electrodes of the second electrostatic chuck to a substrate side, and the second electrostatic chuck removes the foreign material.
12. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein: each of a non-chucking area of the substrate which does not overlap with an electrode of the first electrostatic chuck when the electrode is projected to a substrate side attracted to the first substrate chucking surface and a non-chucking area of the substrate which does not overlap with an electrode of the second electrostatic chuck when the electrode is projected to a substrate side attracted to the second substrate chucking surface includes an end portion of the substrate; and the means for transferring the substrate comprises a robot arm having a substrate holding portion capable of holding the substrate with use of the end portion of the substrate.
13. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein the resin sheet contains at least one material selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl alcohol, low-density polyethylene, polyethylene, polyvinylidene chloride, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, acetyl cellulose, polycarbonate, nylon, polyimide, aramid, and polycarbodiimide, and has a thickness of 5 μm to 100 μm.
14. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein: the means for supplying a resin sheet includes: a delivery roll around which the resin sheet is wound in a roll shape; and a supply side guide roller for guiding the resin sheet delivered from the delivery roll to a side of the first substrate chucking surface; and the means for collecting the resin sheet includes: a wind-up roll for winding up the resin sheet; and a collection side guide roller for guiding the resin sheet fed from the second substrate chucking surface to a side of the wind-up roll.
15. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein each of the first substrate chucking surface and the second substrate chucking surface comprises an electrode for each of the electrostatic chucks.
16. An apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate according to claim 9 , wherein: each of the first substrate chucking surface and the second substrate chucking surface comprises an electrode for each of the electrostatic chucks; and each electrode comprises an elastic electrode having Shore hardness of 20 Hs to 90 Hs and volume resistivity of 100 Ω·cm to 1×10 −5 Ω·cm, and has a thickness of 0.05 mm to 3 mm.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
July 11, 2006
June 12, 2012
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